1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a method for enhancing the salty-taste and/or delicious-taste of food products, more particularly a method for enhancing the salty-taste and/or delicious-taste of food products and materials thereof characterized in that it uses trehalose, a food product and a material thereof with enhanced salty-taste and/or delicious-taste by use of trehalose, especially salt-reduced products and materials thereof, a process for producing them, and a trehalose-containing agent for enhancing the level of salty-taste and/or delicious-taste of food products and materials thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Sodium chloride inseparably relates to our eating habits as a basic seasoning for imparting salty-taste to food products. Recently, it is said that excessive intake of sodium chloride is suspected to be an important factor of causing circulatory diseases such as high-blood pressure, renal diseases and heart diseases. Two to five g/day/adult is a physiologically required amount of sodium chloride; however, the Japanese take no less than 13 g on average. The Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan recommends that the Japanese should be restricted to take 10 g or lower; particularly, persons with high-blood pressure preferably are recommended to take 7 g or lower.
In some processed foods, the content of sodium chloride is lowered and the replacement with other salty substances has been tried. It is noted that conventional food products with less sodium chloride generally deteriorate and lose their inherent taste and deliciousness. It is also known that food products, containing substitutes for sodium chloride, have unsatisfactory taste along with salty-taste: For example, excessive amount of potassium chloride may impart a bitter-taste to food products and deteriorate their delicious-taste.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 53,456/90 and 184,326/93 disclose methods for enhancing the level of salty-taste of sodium chloride to provide salt-reduced food products. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 53,456/90 proposes a method comprising a step of adding to food products a decomposed solution, prepared by mixing water for hydrolysis with a mixture of citric acid-producing black koji and yellow koji. The latter method has a demerit that it cannot avoid the unsatisfactory taste and flavor inherent to the decomposed solution, resulting in deteriorating the taste and flavor of the final products.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 184,326/93 proposes a method for adding to food products saturated aliphatic monocarboxylic acids with 3-8 carbons. This method has as a demerit that the unfavorable taste and flavor inherent in the acids are inevitable, resulting in deterioration of the taste and flavor of food products.